Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday in the Georgia town where he grew up

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter is preparing to celebrate his 100th birthday today, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.

Living the last 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, the Georgia Democrat and 39th president has continued to defy expectations, just as he did through a remarkable rise from his family peanut farming and warehouse business to the world stage. He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981 and then worked more than four decades leading The Carter Center, which he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”

“Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it’s worth celebrating,” Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chair of The Carter Center governing board, says in an interview.

The former president was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, where he has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. He is expected to mark his birthday in the same one-story home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s — before his first election to the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at 96.

The Carter Center on September 17 hosted a musical gala in Atlanta to celebrate the former president with a range of genres and artists, including some who campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than $1.2 million for the center’s programs and will be broadcast Tuesday evening on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are honoring Carter with a five-day effort to build 30 houses. The Carters became top ambassadors for the international organization after leaving the White House and hosted annual building projects into their 90s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis at age 90, then several falls and a hip replacement in his mid-90s before announcing at 98 that he would enter hospice care.

Townspeople in Plains planned another concert this evening.

Jason Carter says the centenarian president, born only four years after women were granted the constitutional right to vote and four decades before Black women won ballot access, is eager to cast his 2024 presidential ballot — for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat who wants to become the first woman, second Black person and first person of south Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.

“He, like a lot of us, was incredibly gratified by his friend Joe Biden’s courageous choice to pass the torch,” the younger Carter says. “You know, my grandfather and The Carter Center have observed more than 100 elections in 40 other countries, right? So, he knows how rare it is for somebody who’s a sitting president to give up power in any context.”
Jason Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”

Early voting in Georgia begins October 15, two weeks into James Earl Carter Jr.’s 101st year.